Posted
by
CmdrTaco
on Wednesday May 11, 2011 @08:35AM
from the yeah-sorry-bout-that dept.

Trailrunner7 writes "The source code to the infamous Zeus crimeware kit, which has been sold on underground forums for years, has been leaked and is now available for anyone to see if they know where to look. Security researchers over the weekend noticed that files appearing to contain the source code for the Zeus crimeware kit were starting to pop up on various forums frequented by attackers and cyber-criminals. The Zeus exploit kit is perhaps the most well-known kit of its kind right now, and has been used by a variety of attackers for numerous malware campaigns and targeted attacks."

Thank you very much! The RAR archive [krash.in] (9.2Mb, password 'zeus') contains the Zeus source code alright (almost 60 KLOC of C++ and PHP with 10 KLOC of Russian comments). Interesting to see how the different parts work, I hope someone does an English translation for all non-Russian-speaking security researchers...

I think the gp poster may have been interested in *running* the code, ergo Ubuntu in itself ain't gonna help. However, a sandbox to play in running *within* Ubuntu, that would give me a warm fuzzy... unless Zeus is known to try to climb out of VMs.

Bob, I told you to stay off of Slashdot while you're suppose to be "working". We all know you don't do much of anything, but referencing your coworkers as incompetent slackers really doesn't make you any new friends.

Now get back to work. You've been doing that "simple" change for 2 months now. Get it done with so we can present it to the customer.

It's only bad for "the rest of us" if by "the rest of us" you mean "Windows users, the vast majority of computer users" because Microsoft will inevitably drag its feet in fixing its vulnerabilities (if it is even able to fix them) even though it now has a direct window into how Windows machines are being attacked.

I am not a skilled reverser, but I have read about a solution to this problem: waiting out the antivirus sandbox by either doing seemingly harmless things for long enough or burying the malware code inside another executable (code cave, pushing code forwards and recalculating the references, etc.) referencing it from a place in the executable that is guaranteed to execute but after the sandbox timeout. AFAIK no antivirus scans process memory at intervals or otherwise "actively monitors" the memory of proces

Well theoretically wouldn't that also give microsoft and security vendors a chance to adapt, patch the holes and flaws that allow the kit to work in the first place? Sure it's a huge extra fear since the source code is out and it can adapt to new holes faster, but I'd imagine the ones who were capable of finding and exploiting vulnerabilities were already a threat.

I looked at that, and the first thing I noticed was where he puts two constructs in one line, like so:

for (;;) if(){}

Well shit... I do that. Isn't it obvious? There's only one block of statements; it will execute for each item in the list if the condition is true for that item. Why waste an extra level of indentation?

While it shouldn't be confusing, do you have it running as some sort of 'honey pot', or are you just a bit hoarder?

One of the things that people often tout about Linux is it's strong security model; however, I'll believe it's a true advantage when I even see a majority of system admins avoid the use of root for day to day activities/ process users.

I worked for a company that had "free hosting" servers. They were honestly free for customers that used our payment system. Since anyone could sign up, anyone did. We had all kinda of neat root kits, PHP shells, back doors, and the like installed. I'd sweep on a regular basis looking for them. We were locked down tight enough so they never broke very much of anything The worse would be someone would exploit something a user install

Why do Windows users get all kinds of great software like this, now with the source, maybe we can finally get some really great malware for Linux.

You jest, but your joke is confused. A "Linux port" would mean that users of Linux would be able to use the attack toolkit -- not that they would suddenly become susceptible to the Windows exploit vectors.

Thus a port wouldn't enable us to create malware targeting Linux any more than a Windows port of GCC suddenly makes MS Visual Studio better.

It depends on what parts of it you do the porting on. Where there is a piece of code that attacks some Windows exploit, you have to "port it" so that it attacks some Linux exploit. That's probably harder to do, but not impossible. Create enough incentive (like getting 100 million moms with credit cards to use Linux), and it will be solved in no time.

Doing a little forensics on the solutions file for the visual studio project, we can see that the username the hackers users on his Windows box is "jam3s". There are several strings in the solutions file that reference this username:

"Computers ~I have a passion for computers and I learned about many different aspects of computers in terms of dialup service, networking, software, anti-virus / malware, website design, databases, servers, etc. I am always learning stuff with computers as computers are ever-changing. I have designed a few websites for different nonprofit organizations and companies. Microsoft sadly is my least favorite software company, however at the same time it is my fav

Doing a little forensics on the solutions file for the visual studio project, we can see that the username the hackers users on his Windows box is "jam3s". There are several strings in the solutions file that reference this username:

So, are we dealing with jamtrees that jam some sweet jazz music, or are those trees that produce jam (and if so, which flavour)?

Dude, the executable is essentially public. It's malware; it literally wants to spread. I could go to any of the dozen PC's currently in our "compromised" VLAN and pull off the Zeus binary.

Now, I have access to the source code too. I have access to information, I can use that to build understanding. That will only make my job of keeping the malware off our systems easier,... because the binary is already frickin' everywhere.

OK I will explain.Since the rise of modern religions like Christianity and Judaism, The Gods of the older religions, such as the Norse Gods and the Greek Gods have gotten left behind.With nothing to do some of them have taken up hobbies.Hestia has her own show on the Food network. Good recipes btw, although she tends to over use the Greek yogurt to much for my tastes.Aphrodite started a marriage consoling service with Hera.Poseidon opened up a water park, the rides were great but it was shut down due to leg

It's a kit to assemble credit-card stealing keylogger worms. Select the expliots to use, select the payloads, tell it where to send the data, what your command and control servers are, compile, and steal data.

Thinking about this over dinner, I came to a thought about HOW this got put into general availability.

This crimeware kit is like $10,000 a go. If I where the developer, I would be very careful about where copies go and security on the local machine. So either this guy, or his backups got hacked, or the other potential way it got out is through a trusted client or similar.

It would be sweet irony if the malware developer got pawned by another piece of malware, but I guess we will never know.